Understandably, the center position was thin - it always is. It comes in a little above the lower limit, but comfortably so. The 2023 Clean Slate All-Stars:Īltogether, it’s a cap hit of $66 million.
But even without them, it’s a pretty good list. Kane and Tarasenko likely will be on this list, once they sign, because the one thing that’s probably missing without them is high-end scoring talent. We’re still waiting to see where Patrick Kane, Vladimir Tarasenko and a few other stragglers land. It slowed down dramatically after that – just 28 players signed on Day 2, 14 on Day 3, eight on Day 4 and three on Day 5. That also leaves us in a position to add expensive talent down the road, because we’ve maintained some payroll flexibility.Īccording to CapFriendly, there were 166 contracts signed on the first day of free agency, though that number included some RFAs as well as UFAs. Instead, let’s go the other way and just cross the threshold of the lower limit, so that our team is competitive and cap compliant.
If we were an actual NHL GM, actually trying to win the Stanley Cup, we would probably spend right to the max. The lower limit was set at $61.7 million, the midpoint at $72.6 million and the upper limit at $83.5 million. Remember too that three days before the free agency opened, the NHL and NHLPA established the payroll range for the 2023 24 season. This year, when the doors opened, it was like a Black Friday sale with clearance merchandise racing out the door, right from the start. It used to be, teams needed to wait until the third or fourth or seventh day of free agency to do any real bargaining hunting. It was a never-ending cycle, and even if teams knew better than to offer so much money and term, they still couldn’t stop themselves.Ĭompare that to what unfolded this year, where there were bargains galore to be had, right from the opening bell. Invariably, the loser was the team that tendered the top bid.
Financially, the player emerged as the clear winner. Opening day would generally feature feverish bidding wars among multiple teams for top players – where the regret could sink in almost as soon as the ink was dried on the contract. You probably don’t need to be reminded that in years past, most teams overpaid significantly and stupidly in free agency. In fact, this was a positively unique UFA year just because teams had so little financial wiggle room. And a clean financial slate, in the flat-cap era, has never been a greater advantage.
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